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If the conduit will be large enough to pull additional wire in the future, and you leave pull string in it, then you should be fine.

If not, then I would pull 3 RG6 and 3 Cat5e or Cat6. Cat6 isn't "temperamental", its just hard to terminate properly (in which case it doesn't meet the cat6 spec so you might as well have cat5e). Properly terminated Cat5e will outperform poorly/improperly terminated Cat6.

You can buy direct-burial Ethernet and coaxial, but I guess since you've already dug the trench there's no value in it. Though, you may wish to use direct-burial even within a trench, in case the insulation on either is compromised.

Put in two runs of each, in case you lose one of them for whatever reason (the marginal cost is minimal). You can use a switch on the garage end to connect it all to the same Ethernet cable and same goes for the SWIM system for the coax.

There are many answers to the questions, but the bottom line is all of them I have seen so far are great.

What part of LA are you in? If you do not think you are getting the correct answers, go to the local city/county building department and get it stright from them.

Put your cable and catxx in conduct and be sure you use sweaps at both ends instead of 90 deg so that if you need to add or replace cables it is earier to do.

As for the power, your electrican is licensed by the state, city, county and is much more quialityed to run the power and the install the correct grounding system per the National electrical code and the local code. DO NOT SECOUND GUESS THEM.

National code has a higher requarement then local and it say's that buildings that are on the same electrical supply meter and seperate, must be tied together with the gounds.

This means that the electrican will run 4 wires to the main electral panel, two for the primary and one for 'ground' and for 'nutral'.

I am rebuilding my garage as the old one is falling down. I have a pretty good sized trench dug between the house and the dig for the new garage pad.

I was thinking of running two RG6 lines and two Cat5e in a conduit in the trench.

Couple of questions...

1) Do I need two RG6? Thinking one backup is not a bad idea.2) Do I need the grounding cable on the RG6?3) If I upgrade to a genie box and put a client in the garage one line should be enough?

Also, if anyone has any opinion on Cat5e vs. Cat6 please let me know. I understand that Cat6 can be temperamental...

It's not my money to spend, but I'm a firm believer of more is better. Especially when everything is open. Dragging cable through a conduit once it's buried or through a wall once it's closed is a PITA.

I would buy the RG6 in the dual cable bulk packs and run at least 4 if not 6 lines. I would also run 3 or 4 Cat 5e's.

While 6 - RG6 may seem like a lot, here's how it could be used. This is actually 7 lines4 lines to the dish to support a SWM 16 or Zinwell1 line for a receiver or a slave TV in the garage1 line for an antenna1 line for a cable modem

For the cat 5e1 line for your main phone1 line for networking in the garage1 line if you wanted to dedicate a line for Uverse/FIOS/DSL.1 line for a spare.

While you could get by with 2 and 2 and while you may never use the extra lines, you'll be happy that you spent the extra $100 if you ever do need them.